Melcher-Dallas shows consolidation isn’t only for schools

The past three decades haven't been all wine and roses for the south-central Iowa community of Melcher-Dallas, but there's no mistaking that they've been better because of the two towns' historic decision to merge.

The decision was the culmination of decades' worth of cooperative agreements that started with a successful consolidation of the schools, Mayor Louie Karpan told us last week.

'When the school districts came together in the 1960s, e

veryone could see how much better it was,' Mayor Louie Karpan said. 'The athletic teams really advanced and the towns started to come together. That's when members of the communities first began talking about another merger.'

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, 664 of Iowa's 947 incorporated places had fewer than 1,000 residents in 2010. Seventy-one percent of those small municipalities lost population between 2000 and 2010, even as the overall state population grew.

During that same time, the population of Melcher-Dallas held steady at around 1,300 residents.

Their experience may offer a path forward for other Iowa communities battling rural flight.

A HISTORY AS RIVALS

Dallas was founded as Ohiotown in 1845 by settlers from Ohio (they later changed the town's name in honor of U.S. Vice President George M. Dallas). Melcher, located one mile directly south of Dallas, was founded in 1913, it's said, after founders clashed over the details of a planned extension of the Rock Island Railroad. Founders named the new town in honor of railroad executive Frank Otis Melcher, who had recently died, and pledged the roads of his new community would never align with the roads of Dallas. To this day, along Border Street where the two towns meet, Melcher's roads feed into the neighboring town's alleyways.

For decades, both communities' fortunes soared alongside that of the state's coal industry: 18 of Iowa's mines were within a 20-mile radius of Melcher-Dallas. By 1929, Marion County produced 20 percent of Iowa's coal. The following year it was the leading producer of coal in the state. Populations swelled and relationships were strained as Italian, Croatian and Irish immigrants joined the towns established Swedish, English and Norwegian populations.

'It was considered taboo to come into the other community at night,' said Karpan, whose mother hailed from Melcher and his father from Dallas. 'Those coal miners were rough and they were tough and they were hard drinkers. These were rough towns then — tough towns.'

The rivalry between towns lasted long after the last coal mine in the Melcher-Dallas area closed in 1952, and populations began to dwindle. At the height of prosperity, Melcher is believed to have had about 3,500 residents, with many miners populating dirt-floored shacks in the surrounding countryside. Dallas, which has always been a smaller community, boasted about 1,000 residents within its city limits. In the years that followed, more than half the towns' residents left.

Shortly before the schools merged, state officials had to step in to keep athletic teams from facing off against each other except in tournament play.

'There were just so many fights between the fans … you just couldn't play a game,' said Karpan, who graduated in 1956 from Melcher. 'Men were fighting. Women were swinging purses. We were on the floor trying to play and we'd have to duck to stay out of the fights. That's how bad it was.'

Even after the successful consolidation of the rival schools in 1959 showed the financial and organizational benefits of combining resources, some residents in both towns remained vehemently opposed to the idea.

So community leaders looked for smaller opportunities to work together. During the 1970s, the towns' sewer systems were joined. Water services followed. By the mid-1980s, the two independent city councils put the question of consolidation on the ballot, and 80 percent of residents agreed the two communities should become one. It is the only such merger in Iowa history.

'It really wasn't until the 1980s that the towns would have voted to merge,' Karpan said. 'We had voters who didn't clearly remember how it was before the schools merged. And, I think, so many smaller changes had come before that those who did remember also understood the benefits of joining forces.'

WORKING TOGETHER

Those benefits are clear to any visitor to Melcher-Dallas.

There's a grocery store, a meat locker and an ice cream shop flanking the square. On a recent weekday, a handful of local men discussed life at the lawn mower sales and repair shop on the corner. Residential streets proudly bear the dark evidence of new asphalt. Lawn signs indicate where school boosters or Lions Club members live.

Soon, the town's tiny library will move into a renovated storefront that is near the town's vibrant senior center, a project that will double the library's current size — thanks to community donations. A second expansion already is in the works.

'We didn't want a tax increase, but we also didn't want to have to wait to expand the library,' said Librarian Lori Dhabalt-Davis, who grew up in the community and graduated from Melcher-Dallas Community School District in 1988. 'So, we'll finish the renovations and get the new library opened, and continue to raise funds for the meeting space.'

Since the 1986 merger, population has been largely steady. Such practicality, with a nod to keeping living costs low, is one of the reasons residents give for why they've stayed.

When the local high school had to be closed and a new facility built in its place, Davis and her classmates spent more than two years walking to temporary classrooms in existing buildings throughout town.

When town residents wanted to entice a doctor to the community, they worked together to build a medical clinic. When it first opened, medical services were only offered on certain days of the week. But the clinic has grown and now offers services each weekday.

There are limits. Many residents commute for work — about 17 miles to Knoxville or Chariton, or a bit further to Indianola. Pregnant residents can see a Knoxville doctor for prenatal care, but labor and delivery requires a 45-minute trip to a partnering hospital in Des Moines.

Still, Melcher-Dallas residents have been able to preserve a type of community life that Davis and others treasure.

'There's something to be said for living in a safe community, for being able to send your children to schools where you know the teachers and the classmates,' Davis said. 'It's not overly expensive to live here, and the community is well-positioned for access to larger towns when you need them.'

STEMMING RURAL FLIGHT

For decades, Iowa's school districts have turned to consolidation as a way to maximize resources in the face of dwindling student populations. And while there are many variables to consider — geography, history and shared resources, among them — Melcher-Dallas' experience shows Iowa's small municipalities could reap similar benefits from consolidation.

As rural population decline erodes already fragile tax bases, it directly impacts the ability of local governments to maintain roads and services such as animal control, water, sewer, police and fire protection. Local businesses and churches dwindle, properties are abandoned and cities have fewer volunteers and civic groups to turn things around.

To date, the answer for many Iowa communities has been to unincorporate, to fold what's left of their town into the county.

It was part of the discussion in Melcher-Dallas before the towns consolidated. The smaller Dallas could have unincorporated, possibly to later be annexed into Melcher. But its doubtful Melcher, acting alone, would have had the means to take on the additional city services, especially following the neglect that would have surely taken place in the interim.

As it stands, Melcher and Dallas have lost a few things, but their residents' willingness to cooperate and consolidate have preserved vastly more of what they treasure about their towns. They've been able to stem the tide of rural flight and begin a new chapter.

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Frank Otis Melcher as the founder of Melcher.